Monday, 28 April 2008

Hubby and I had a splendid time in Florida a couple of months ago, and there were two things the Americans include in their kitchens which we decided we'd like too.

Firstly, the side-by-side fridge/freezer. Not only does it hold a whole lot more stuff than our current under-the-counter side-by-side arrangement, but these fridges have water plumbed into them. Which means ice cubes and chilled water at the touch of a button. I'm keen to nix our bottled water habit (plastic is bad, shipping is bad etc etc) and we go through a bag of ice in our house every few weeks. (So we drink a lot of G&Ts, it's normal).

We've looked around at a few of these types of fridges in various retail stores and inevitably there's some design feature that irks - eg the handles are made of some nasty plastic, or the finish looks cheap. But in Milan last week Samsung had a rather impressive display of their new products and I was instantly smitten with this fridge. The blue LED screen looks so much cooler (pun intended) than others I've seen, and look at those stainless steel doors...

The other thing the Americans had in their kitchen which was incredibly useful was a hose attached to the tap. Great for rinsing salad greens, and also good for hosing down grubby sinks. Ikea has a new range of taps which feature a hose attachment, including ones where the hose is hidden inside the tap, it retracts in there when you're not using it. How brilliant is that? As our sink will be facing out into the open plan dining room, I don't want a massive hose on a stick ruining my sight line. I can't believe I'm looking forward to a retractable hose. I used to be fun.

About Me

I'm into architecture, design, music, travel and cooking. Since arriving in London in 1999 I have worked in digital media and publishing (including Wallpaper* and PORTER magazines), had two children and travelled a lot. I am currently working in advertising doing content strategy. This blog was to document my house renovation project, but for the time being, it's more or less done...